House Project: Assembling a Garden Takai Lantern

Franklin made sure we were assembling it correctly!

Have you heard of a Takai Lantern? In addition to renovating and updating things inside the house,
we're always looking for things to do in the backyard to make it more welcoming. Tom recently ordered a bench made of composite wood that won't deteriorate. Most recently we saw a 3 foot high stone garden Takai Lantern structure.

   In fact, it was about 3 years ago that we saw one in the front yard of a neighborhood house, and we really liked it. We hadn't been able to find one until recently though. 

The assembled Takai Lantern

   The "Takai Lantern" is a four piece structure, and stands about 3 feet as each piece is stacked vertically on top of another. The trick was getting it stacked correctly (we looked it up on Google.com).  
  Actually, the hardest part was transporting it. In total it weighs 376 pounds!!!  
We lifted the pieces into the back of our pick up truck, and once we got home, had to carry them together one at a time to the backyard. 
  Since we bought the lantern off a neighbor, and it was scattered in pieces all over the ground, we were unsure how it was supposed to be assembled. It took a couple of tries, and an internet search to find out how it was supposed to look.
  We put the lantern together in one of the backyard vegetation beds next to tall grasses and a plum tree.